A recent study indicated that 42 million women in the United States which is roughly 53 percent of the 79 million adult women in the country used social media frequently. In the addition to this, a survey conducted by the mobile data Association reported that 74 percent of women say that they have text messaged in the last two minutes, as compared to 26 percent of men. All these statistics prove that women are technologically forward but don’t consider texting or social networking as using technology.
Women generally abandon considering IT as a career in their early teens. This is the time when girls should be involved in computer clubs and other IT related extra curricular activities to change their perception. What women don’t realize is that technology is a part of out everyday lives and shapes the lives of both men and women. Therefore, why should women be left out in the process of developing technology? Secondly, the lucrative IT sector opens doors to hundreds of high paying jobs and women should be able to take advantage of that.
Women should also develop technical skills because most businesses most businesses these days are built on technology and having such skills equals power and prestige in large corporations.
To sum it up, women locally as well as globally need to break out of the blonde bimbo stereotype carved for them by certain sections of society in general. Acting stupid and ridiculing geeks will only serve to reinforce this stereotypical image of the fairer sex. Society in general needs to consider women a viable part of the information culture- a part that should neither be ignored nor underestimated.
Organizations, on the other hand, need to change their strategies if they want to encourage more women in the IT sector. Although efforts like promoting women, busting stereotypes, changing organization culture and having HR policies in place that level the playing field will help; educating people, designing mixed gender work teams and flexible timings will go an even longer way.